No matter if you’re in an office or home, full-time or part-time, getting ready for a holiday is hard work! There are lots of skills and traits that we use at work that help us prepare for and have a successful holiday. We’re pleased to share a three-part blog series to share how we use our PR and nutrition expertise to tackle Thanksgiving!

PlanningThe Menu: Planning Thanksgiving dinner plays right into my strengths as a PR professional. When I first started hosting Thanksgiving, I created a document that outlined guests attending, courses, dishes and ingredients for each recipe. This all-in-one file is the list of foods I need to prepare as well as my ready-to-print shopping list when it’s time to hit the store. Saving this as a document means that it’s at my fingertips for years to come. This year, all I need to do was open my 2017 file and save it for 2018 and already half my planning was done!

The Shopping: With a busy, full-time schedule, shopping is difficult, and I refuse to do all my shopping in the short evenings before Thanksgiving Thursday! As added incentive to shop ahead, some supermarkets offer deals, like a free turkey (!!!), when you spend a certain amount of money leading up to Thanksgiving. With my handy-dandy menu/shopping list document, I can prioritize my shopping based on perish-ability and purchase some items 1-2 weeks ahead of time to cut down on what I need when stores are most crowded. And remember it takes DAYS to thaw a frozen turkey. Depending on the weight, you may need up to six days in the fridge to thaw it. Visit foodsafety.gov for thawing times.

Decide What to Delegate: Chances are, you’ve invited over friends and family eager to help. Decide what would be helpful to have someone else bring and ask! Just like in the office, teamwork is key! No need to be a Thanksgiving hero and do it all when you have plenty of loved ones eager to contribute!